Day 5: Wellington to Christchurch

Day 5: Wellington to Christchurch
Sunday, April 8, 2001

This morning was our earliest one yet, as we had to load all of our luggage onto a cube van that would take it all down to the ferry docks. The van would then be driven onto the ferry, with us arriving later, for the journey across the Cook Strait to the South Island of New Zealand.

After breakfast, we boarded the coach for the short drive down to the ferry docks, welcoming some new people joining us for the South Island part of our tour, as Anastacia was played as usual. We arrived at the docks, departed our coach and boarded the ferry. The ferry ride was a few hours long. To pass the time, some played cards, some played a different kind of card-based game called "Skip Bo", some read, some slept, and some just hung out at the top of the deck, taking in the sunshine, brisk breeze, and for the last hour of the ride, excellent scenery of the South Island.

On the ferry to the South Island (standing: Matt, Christine, Chad, Tina, Damien, Hayley; sitting: Stefanie, Chris, April, John)

The ferry arrived in Picton, where we departed and then boarded a different Contiki coach, left behind by another Contiki tour that was crossing in the opposite direction we were. They would in turn pick up the coach that we left behind on the North Island.

We continued on and made a stop near Kaikoura, where seven of us were taking part in the optional Wings Over Whales excursion, which included Matan, Colleen, Tessa, Leanne, David, Martina and myself. This was a whale watching excursion by airplane. The airplane could seat just two across and had only enough seats for ten people. It was by far the smallest airplane I had ever been in ... quite a difference from the 400+ passenger Boeing 747 I arrived in Auckland on. Soon after takeoff, we passed over our coach, which was stopped by the side of the road, many of the people outside below, waving at us as we waved back. We weren't in the air for very long when we saw our first Sperm Whale at the surface of the ocean. We made several low passes before it took one last breath of air and arched its body and dived deep into the water. The benefit of whale watching from the air as opposed to on a boat in the water is that boats can disturb the whales while airplanes can't be "heard" by the whales. We flew around and saw sharks swimming in the waters as well. We then saw our second whale, making several passes until it dived under. We continued in the air and saw a giant school of fish, many jumping in and out of the water, with seals and sharks among them. There was a chance we could have seen dolphins as well, but we didn't have such luck. Even so, we did get to see the main attraction, the whales, and more, including great views around the peninsula. We landed at the Wings Over Whales airfield and had some food while we waited for the coach to arrive to pick us up.

The coach arrived, we boarded and were off on our way to Christchurch. It was going to be close to three hours until we would arrive in Christchurch, so to kill some time, Gavin put on an animated movie called Footrot Flats. It was a very popular comic strip turned movie in New Zealand. I have to be honest and say that well over 20 minutes into the movie I still had no clue as to what it was about nor did I understand much of it ... neither did most of the non-New Zealanders and non-Australians. I suppose you had to have lived there to understand it. Therefore, I managed to fall completely asleep for a good portion of the drive, waking up towards the end of the movie. By that time, darkness was descending upon us.

We arrived at the Pacific Park Hotel in Christchurch and checked into our rooms, which were, as in many of the other hotels we had been at, in separate buildings just across from the main reception/bar/restaurant. It was only a twin share this night, where I roomed with John again. As it was a Sunday without much going on in the city, Gavin booked us all in at the hotel restaurant, called Outlaws. It had a country and western theme to it, with the staff all dressed as cowboys and cowgirls. Occasionally during the meal, they would perform a dance routine and even play a game. The game was to identify TV show themes. They played three TV themes, and for each theme, the first to correctly identify it first would play against the other winners for a grand prize, which was a giant bowl of several types of alcohol all mixed together. Mick and Damien were two from our group that made it to the final challenge, with Damien winning the giant bowl, in which he shared with many in the group. This night we would also pick up our last group of newcomers joining us for the rest of the tour of the South Island, including Brian, Jodie, Sinead, Hatsuyo, Ai, Brenda, Fred, Mike, Renee, Julie (who happened to also have the same last name as me), and another Leanne and another Tessa. This would also mark the last night we would have with us Glenn, Charlie, Chris, Stuart, and Leanne#1.

Dinner at Outlaws: Chad, Sinead, Ranny, Jane, Matt, Hayley

Dinner at Outlaws: Tessa, Chris, Sheree, Vicky, Alison, Mick, David, Brian, Glenn, Martina, Charlie

Dinner at Outlaws: Me, Matan, Claire, Mick, Eric, Stuart, Colleen

After dinner, the television was wheeled out, along with a microphone, and the lights dimmed. It was to be another night of karaoke. While there were other people in the restaurant, including another Contiki group taking the same tour as us, but travelling in the opposite direction, we owned the karaoke machine pretty much all night. There was also plenty of drinking as well, with some even visibly showing the red stains on their teeth from having too much red wine (Eric and Claire!) I'm also sure that the drinking also helped lead me to sing karaoke for the first time ever in my life! I was to sing a duet with Mick, but he disappeared to pick up some more drinks for a room party planned for later than night. So Chris subbed in for Mick as we sang Tom Jones' "It's Not Unusual". I got many compliments for my singing effort from others, but that wasn't going to convince me to try for a musical career. Of course, Anastacia's "I'm Outta Love" had to be sung as well on this night, with everybody in our group, microphone or not, singing along. Two of the highlights of the night were Chris rapping to Eminem's "Stan", and Leanne#1 taking over on Christine Aguilera's "What a Girl Wants", after a failed attempt by a group of other ladies. Leanne had everybody laughing as she did her own interpretation of "What a Girl Wants", as part rap, part song, and part spoken word. The DJ in charge of the programming had enough after a couple of minutes, but Leanne got a rousing cheer and applause from all of us.

Knowing that Mick was having a room party, I found my way to Mick and Ranny's room, which was just down the hall from mine and John's. I popped in to find several bodies strewn over beds, chairs, outside on the balcony having a cigarette, lots of bottles of beer, wine, and other beverages of an alcoholic type strewn all over. There was also toilet paper all over the room. This is where is gets a little blurry... I remember Colleen mooning us against the glass door to the balcony ... I remember playing a card game, but without a deck of cards ... somehow the game dictated each person to have a drink, and at one point I was designated to drink straight out of a bottle of vodka ... then things got really hazy. At some point I fell off the bed I was sitting on, all the while, poor Ranny (otherwise known as 2nd Generation Filipino Educated in Hawaii) was lying in bed the whole time, trying to sleep. Stuart, who we were partially having the party in honour of, due to his leaving us the next morning, disappeared from the room without a word; nobody saw him leave at all. Leanne#1 and Chris were also leaving us the next day and were present in the room. Everyone cleared out at some point around 3AM, except for 2nd Generation Filipino Educated in Hawaii, who was still trying to get some sleep, and Chris, who we left passed out sitting on the bed, against the wall, his body in a contorted state. I remember stumbling my way back to my room, where I John was in deep sleep. Trying to muster the effort to take a quick shower to try and sober up, I felt really sick and dove for the wastebasket. You can guess what happened. Then while leaning over the sink, I had another gut-wrenching reaction. After that, I was hoping John wasn't going to be too upset with me when he would find a surprise in the sink the next morning. I do remember getting into the shower, but then not much else after that.